


Joshua’s 6-Step Plan to Becoming a Vampire

by ForCollective



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: F/F, M/M, Minor Blood in a later chapter, No Wounds, just vampire stuff, nothing major
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-07-29 10:37:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16262486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForCollective/pseuds/ForCollective
Summary: Joshua Decides to take over a coven cause he’s bored. As you do.(Written for the 2018 TWEWY Bang)





	1. Step 1: Find Vampires

    Joshua was tired of life. Not Life In General, but _his_ life in particular. He wanted something new, more freedom perhaps; freedom from the long planned-out life ahead of him. 80 years of boredom just wasn’t appealing. He wasn't sure when or where the idea had come to him, but soon enough he found himself surfing the internet, searching for _vampires,_ of all things.

    Maybe it was how often they were portrayed in media, embedding the idea in his brain. Or maybe, it was left over from a odd childhood fascination he had, though he wasn't that old as it was. When he had been younger he had taken a liking to the strange creatures, wondering what their lives might be like. Now he wanted to find out again, though this time he had no interest in pursuing boring media that left him unsatisfied in the end. This time he intended to find out first hand.

    Finally he came to what he was looking for, after many hours and weeks of sifting through forum after forum of people who were either faking it or were simply not vampires in the way he wanted. A post stated that a group had moved to an area nearby. He had to check them out.

    He had a plan. It was not the most thought out but it was workable.

    **Step 1:** Find Vampires (Self explanatory)

    **Step 2:** Infiltrate the coven. Should be simple enough. He just had to manage to get them to let him hang around them. He was sure he could do something for them. Hopefully not anything that required him to be doing physical labour like gardening or really anything that required sweating.

    **Step 3:** Gain their trust. Presumably they wouldn't just turn anyone.

    **Step 4:** Immortality. Again, self explanatory. They would turn him into a vampire

    **Step 5:** Backstab. He wasn't about to live his immortal life under someone else’s rule afterall.

    **Step 6:** This step was less a step and more an end goal. Profit. Live a cushy life with other vampires doing what he wants.

 

    First though, he needed to find them. It required a longer-than-he-would-have-liked bus ride, with more-annoying than-he-would-have-liked people, and one screaming child he felt quite envious of. He too, wished he could scream at how unpleasant their trip was, but unlike the small child, society dictated that he must stay silent.

    The neighbourhood was pleasant, the evening light blanketing the area as streetlights began to switch on. People still walked around, but that he knew would soon taper off as people made their way home for the night. He hadn't actually considered how he would find the vampires. Instead, he had simply hopped on a bus hoping he would figure it out on the way there, then spent the whole trip trying not to scream in frustration while not coming up with a plan. After a brief moment of deliberation he decided on fangs. They _did_ have fangs, from what he had found out. So he just needed to talk to people and look in their mouths.

    The easiest way of doing this was to of course just walk up and jam _your_ face close to someone _else’s_ face. Not only did this seem unpleasant, as he would be up close and personal to their breath and bad hygiene, it would most likely cause him problems as well. He was quite short, as much as he didn't want to admit it, so reaching many people’s faces may be an issue.

    “Hi, can you direct me to the library?” he asked the closest women to where he stood. Halting, she glanced up and down the street, trying to remember where the building was before she answered.

    “That way?” She pointed the way she had come, obviously unsure of herself. “I think it’s closed though.”

    “Oh, thanks anyway.” He smiled at her and continued the way she had pointed. She walked quickly away as though he might get upset at her for giving the wrong directions. No fangs as far as he could tell. Alright, next.

    “Hi. Can you please direct me to the library?”

    No one in this area knew where the library was, apparently. He had yet to be given the same directions twice. Honestly that was kind of sad. He had asked at least seven people now, and none had fangs. So here he was: no library and no vampires. The vampire thing was more upsetting, but now he was honestly curious as to where this library was, despite having no want to actually go there.

    “Hi, can you direct me to the library?” He asked a boy about his age. He glanced up from his phone and glared at Joshua, who only continued smiling in the frustrating way he had perfected in the mirror years before.

    “I don't know.” Joshua frowned at the response. He was happy that someone finally admitted that, but the boy’s _ugly_ shirt covered his mouth as he spoke, so it was impossible to see his teeth. Maybe that was the plan?

    “Oh? Why not?”

    “Why not what?

    “Why don’t you know where it is? Honestly, you should get to know the local area better.” The boy adjusted his shirt and frowned at Joshua, who expected he had about one minute left to see this guy’s teeth before he got angry enough to storm off.

    “ _You_ don't know where it is.”

    “ _I_ don't live here.” The guy scowled just as his shirt collar slipped below his mouth.

Fangs. Jackpot.

    “I knew it. You _are_ a vampire. So where’s your coven? I want to join.” By _join_ he meant _rule over_ , but that was beside the point. Stating that outright would most likely not grant him a positive reaction. For some reason, people didn’t like being controlled.

    “Why would I let you join?” That was fair, he hadn't made the best first impression had he?

    “‘Cause I would be a great addition.”

    “More like an annoying one.”

    “I'll let you drink from me?” The guy raised an eyebrow at that.

    “What, are you into that or something?”

    “Maybe.” The words slipped out of his mouth. What a terrible habit he had formed. Frowning even harder, the boy turned to walk away, Joshua was almost surprised that his face hadn’t broken from how much frowning the boy was doing.

    “That was joke. Don't you know how to take a joke?” Joshua said following after him.

    “You would never be accepted. So give up.”

    “How do you know?”

    “‘Cause there is no way you will get everyone else to agree.”

    “Is that a bet?” the boy stopped and glanced at him.

    “Alright how about this. You convince everyone else to agree and I will agree as well. You don't, you leave me alone forever.”

    “Deal. My name is Joshua.” Joshua stuck out his hand for the vampire to shake.

    “Mine’s Neku.” Neku said, ignoring the outstretched hand and instead looking around the street.

    “Ok, lets go.” Neku led him off down a side street, Joshua following closely behind. This was probably not the safest thing to be doing, following a vampire back to his house, but it was certainly what he was going to do anyway.

    So follow he did, down a street and into an ally and out the other side. They walked for a good fifteen minutes before he was _done_ with walking. He hated walking; people had invented vehicles for a reason. Still though, he continued on, down street after street through the terrible layout of the houses ‘till they reached a pale green one.

    It was ugly, the grass wasn't mowed, and the driveway cracked. Sitting on a hill, its first floor was a basement floor with a second floor above that. Instead of going through the nearest door he was led up a set of stairs to the second floor.

    “I'm home!” Neku yelled as he opened the door motioning for Joshua to follow. This was his final chance to turn around and head home. Instead of doing what any person with self-preservation would do and running home as fast as he could, he walked forward. Anyone with even basic self preservation instincts would not have gone on this whole trip at all, why turn back now?


	2. Step 2: Infiltrate the coven

“Oh, Neku, you made a friend!” A pair of teen girls sat on an old beaten up couch that looked like it may have survived through numerous centuries, despite obviously being from the 80’s, as most old couches were. Something about their ugly appearance apparently warded off decay. 

“He’s not my friend.”

“Oh? And here I thought we were hitting it off so well.” Neku groaned and stomped off down the hall, abandoning Joshua to the quite fashionable girls, who seemed to be hunched over some fashion sketches. The weirdly tall and angled women with giraffe necks so common in that style gave it away instantly.

“A designer I see.” 

“Yes… Well, Eri is. I just sew,” the dark haired girl said, ducking her face away, though she smiled happily at the girl beside her from under her bangs.

“So if you’re not Neku’s friend, why are you here?” the girl he presumed was Eri asked, brushing her light pink and very thin looking hair out of the way of her eyes.

“I intend to help you all out, maybe earn a spot in your coven.”

“And Neku brought you back here? I thought he hated people asking.” The dark haired girl said glancing at her friend questioningly who just shrugged in response as though she had been asked a question.

“Well. It doesn’t matter. I’m Eri and this is my girlfriend Shiki. It’s nice to meet you!” He guessed right.

“It’s nice to meet you both. Now who is in charge around here?”

“That would be Rhyme. I think she is in the kitchen.”

“I guess I should go introduce myself then.” He walked away, forgetting to ask where exactly the kitchen was, but he was committed now and couldn’t turn back to ask. Exiting the living room he walked down the hall Neku had previously stomped down. He could see a table through the open entranceway at the far end so hopefully this was the right direction. Upon entering the room he found it was, in fact, not the kitchen. Instead it was a sparsely decorated dining room, that was seemingly relying on the hideous striped wallpaper and a vaguely fancy though well worn table to make it appear nicer than it was. Suffice to say, it was not working.  

There was another door, this one mostly closed, leading to yet another room. This one with voices coming from it. One was Neku, he was fairly sure, and the other a girl’s voice. Maybe Rhyme? Crossing the room, nearly banging his foot on a chair before recovering and smoothly dodging it, he pushed open the door, finding Neku talking with a young girl. She couldn’t be very old. This couldn’t be Rhyme could it?

“Hi. You must be Joshua. Neku was just telling me about you.”

“I’m sure he has only said wonderful things.” The girl laughed.

“Not at all. Anyway I’m Rhyme.” So this was her. How had such a tiny girl come to lead a vampire coven? Then again, almost everyone here seemed to be only in their teens. 

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“So let’s get straight to business. I can’t just accept you in ‘till we get to know you. But you  _ are _ welcome to visit. Maybe you could help us around here some?”

“Of course.” He honestly liked her. No bullshit. It almost made him feel sad he planned to overthrow her. Almost.

“Good. Our lawn has been needing work and so has the garden, but it’s difficult in the dark.” Shit. 

“I’m not too good at gardening.”

“Oh that’s fine, anything would be better than how it is now.” He wasn’t about to get a choice about this was he? Something told him that if he intended to join their little club, he wasn’t. He glanced at Neku, who looked a bit too smug for his liking.

“Sounds good.”

“Excellent. I’m hungry so I’m going out. Neku, would you like to join me?” Neku nodded and followed Rhyme out of the kitchen, leaving Joshua alone in the room. Looking around, he noticed the excess of dust and cobwebs in the space. One would think they would at least clean up even if they didn’t use the room. Or dust maybe once a year even? Well they hadn’t asked him to do it, so it wasn’t his problem, though he would have preferred dusting to gardening. 

Instead of gardening he ended up being a model for a certain pair of fashion conscious girls. Modelling was more up his alley anyway. Having people fawn over him was far better than sweating while being around nature and dirt. He could deal with that some other time. Or maybe just hire someone to do it in the day when they would be asleep and claim it was him. That was probably the better option. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Step 3 : ~~Gain their Trust~~ Make Friends?????

     Out of the group, he preferred Shiki and Eri. He liked Neku, Neku was amusing, but in his own special Neku way. By which Joshua meant he loved to see him frustrated and annoyed. He had been hanging out with the coven for a week now. He’d met Rhyme’s brother Beat, who didn’t spend much time around the house it seemed, as he had only met him once so far. Either that, or he was home after Joshua left for the night. Not that he particularly cared. 

     Right now he couldn't worry about that, as he had far more important things to worry about. Like clothes, and make-up, and spending his parents money on said items. He even did the good friend thing of buying things that Shiki and Eri couldn’t afford. Afterall the easiest way to someone's heart was with a deep wallet, as far as he was concerned. 

     Partway through his buy-the-pair-with-gifts plan though, he began to enjoy his time. The mall was far less annoying when he was there with them. Usually he found the crowds annoying; small groups of friends even more so. Actually being part of one of those groups was far more enjoyable than he would have thought. Their honestly over what looked good or not was refreshing as well; an unexpected added bonus. 

    “Do you want to get something to eat?” Shiki asked him suddenly. He looked away from the offensively pink jacket he had been eyeing, unsure if he had heard her right.

    “I thought you two didn’t need to eat food.” If they did it was going to destroy his whole plan. A lack of needing to eat human food was high up on his list of things he wanted from being a vampire. 

“Oh, we don’t, but you must be hungry by now.”

He was. Eating in front of people did not sound appealing, and having to do it while the other two sat there  _ not _ eating sounded even worse. He attempted to wave off the offer but his stomach had other ideas, growling loudly at the idea of being filled.

“That's fine. I’m good.” He still tried, the pair were not about to let it slide though.

“Nope. I heard that. Off we go!” Eri announced. Grabbing the jacket, she dragged him to the counter to pay as Joshua attempted to redirect this to anything else.

Food court food. Probably the lowest tier of food, combined with the added noise and chaos of a large number of people gathered into a small space stuffing their faces. All the smells mixed with excess grease left unchanged for far too long, making the whole place an unpleasant experience. An experience he would normally avoid as though everyone in there had the plague. In fact he would be more willing to visit a group of plague victims then sit in a food court for five minutes. 

At the same time he had to please the pair he was with if he wanted to continue with his plan. Meaning he couldn’t just reject them on this offer out right, especially since they knew he was hungry and were set on him eating. Giving up their own shopping time, for some reason, to let him feed his overly needy body before it started trying to consume itself in protest. 

“So what do you want?” Joshua fought the urge to say nothing.

“Something mostly edible.” He would be lucky to find that here, if he could at all. He looked at the various shops. Maybe noodles? It was pretty hard to fuck those up, but honestly a lot of people managed anyway. It just took a special level of skill to destroy something so inherently good.  

“How about ramen?” Eri suggested possibly reading his mind. That wasn’t something they could do right? 

The ramen was ok. Not the best he had ever had, but acceptable. A perfectly adequate ramen that would fill his stomach and didn’t make him want to gag. If it hadn’t been served with the terrible smell drifting from a particularly nasty ‘food’ place a few tables away it may have even been good.

He ate as Shiki and Eri showed each other the purchases they had just made, commenting again about how nice they would look on each other, before switching to showing each other things on their phone, and fixing Eri’s make-up about half way through his meal.  He was even included in the sharing of memes and fashion photos. It was enjoyable having people to spend his time with. Throughout his life he had spent most of his time alone, but now he was forgetting the loud crowd around him, wrapped up in a conversation about designers.

After a quick stop at the final make-up store, and by quick he meant they spent about an hour wandering through the make-up isles looking over make-up they had mostly seen before and still found the need to comment on and honestly, was probably mostly the same shit in different packages, they made their way home. By bus. It had never actually occurred to him  _ how _ vampires got around, but with their age they were pretty limited. So the bus it was. They sat in a group continuing their conversation about the make-up they had seen when Joshua realised he had become one of the annoying people he had rolled his eyes at so many times before. He had never understood those groups huddled around, not shutting up, but now he did. It scared him. In normal fashion, he quickly buried the feelings as to not let on any weakness. 

The bus rolled on to their destination. He glanced out the window as he passed the place he had originally gotten off to look for them. Another two stops later and they gathered their bags, dragging them off the bus before making their way down the street. 

“Thanks for mowing the lawn. It looks much nicer now,” Shiki said back to him as they made it to the stairs.

“Anything for my new friends.” It came out far more sarcastic than he intended but he left it. He had hated doing it anyway. He had issues with getting someone to show up at exact times and also realised they were able to handle small amounts of light, something he should have noticed due to Neku being out already as soon as it had gotten dark. Meaning they could look out and know it wasn’t him. Which meant he pushed their terrible mower around the yard himself one day instead of going to school. You would think that something on wheels would be easier to push, but it had taxed him. Maybe he was just weak. He often refused to carry his own bags from the car to the door when he went shopping normally. Making this experience of bussing home and actually carrying them to the house a true anomaly for him.

“There you three are. Have any of you seen Beat?” Rhyme asked the moment they walked in the door

“Nope.” Eri answered dumping her bags in the hall.

“He wasn’t here when I woke up, and he’s never up before me.”

    Joshua could believe that. He didn’t seem like the type to be up at any reasonable hour. In that way he could relate. He despised being up before noon.

“Maybe he had plans,” Shiki suggested, and Rhyme nodded, walking away. Obviously not convinced, but accepting it anyway. 

Shiki and Eri dragged their bags to the living room while Joshua dropped his where Eri’s and previously been. He stretched out his complaining muscles, which he apparently had. ‘Till this point he was fairly certain he had been born without them, but yet here they were: in pain from such a short walk while carrying things. At this rate he would have normally developed muscles in no time and he was not looking forward to it. He was quite used to the twink aesthetic he had going on. 

“I see you’re making friends.”

“Why yes Neku. I am actually capable of that.” Apparently? Why couldn’t younger him do that? He had somehow managed to annoy everyone in class including the weird kid and teacher even in kindergarden. Truly an accomplishment he was proud of to this day, but at the time had been devastated about it. Neku shrugged and shoved his boots on.

“Where are you off to?” Joshua asked.

“I have to drop off my books.” Joshua thought this over and quickly put his own shoes back on.

“I’ll join you.” He wasn’t sure what kind of library would be open at this hour but was pretty sure that was where Neku was implying he was headed. 

“If you must.” The pair headed off, walking silently towards their destination. It was quiet now, most people in buildings or at home. They were a ways from the downtown area so the chance of running into anyone decreased as they walked. He had expected the library to be somewhere more central, but maybe this was why no one knew where it was. Turning down a short street that ended, and obviously did not have a library, they stopped at a small post box looking thing. Sighing loudly he watched as Neku opened the box and slipped the book in before looking over the few other books there.

“What?”

“I thought we would go to a real library.”

“At this hour?”

    Joshua shrugged. A boy could hope he may one day find this mysterious library. He could look it up, but that somehow felt like cheating. He shouldn’t have expected anything else though, as Neku had outright stated before he didn’t know where it was.

With no more answers to his question, he slowly made his way back towards the house, Neku by his side.

“You’re sticking to this longer than I would have thought.”

“Oh?”

“Most people give up quickly.” Joshua glanced at Neku. There were others?

“Do many people try and join?” 

“Not often no.” 

“It must be your charming personality and looks.” Neku groaned and walked a bit faster as though he could out-walk Joshua. Any point up to this he probably could have, but Joshua had actually been walking lately and had built up the ability to move at a quicker speed, for longer than he could have in the past.

“You know you could probably find friends that were, I don’t know,  _ alive, _ if you tried?” “I burned those bridges long ago, dear.”

They didn’t speak again ‘till they reached the house, and even then it was only Neku announcing he was home before hurrying downstairs.


End file.
